Conservative Republicans (19th century)

The Conservative Republicans was a coalition of Republicans from the border (of the Confederacy) and western states of the United States that existed during the American Civil War. The faction's leaders included Francis Preston Blair, Aaron Haddam, and Josiah S. Burton, with Kentucky and Missouri being the Conservative Republicans' strongest support bases.

The Conservative Republicans found support among rural Westerners and moderate abolitionists from the border states; the main issue separating them from Abraham Lincoln's moderates and Thaddeus Stevens' Radical Republicans was the abolition of slavery. The Conservative Republicans were in favor of negotiations with the Confederacy to end the American Civil War, and they were open to reuniting the country without the immediate abolition of slavery. Many of its voters were apathetic to the plight of African-American slaves, and its congressmen were unwilling to turn the Emancipation Proclamation into a constitutional amendment. However, in 1865, the Conservative Republicans decided to vote in favor of the Thirteenth Amendment after its leaders were pleased by President Lincoln's statement that there were no Confederate envoys in Washington DC; they were still meeting with the Union delegatse at Hampton Roads, unbeknownst to the Conservatives. Following the end of the American Civil War, the Conservative and Border Republicans faction dissolved, as their central issue of abolition became irrelevant.